Mujuice - CoolCoolDeath

The last previous years have seen a number of exceptional artists sprouting out from Eastern European countries such as Poland (Kowlaski, SLG) and Russia (SCSI-9, Theodor Zox, Lazzich). New net-labels such as Fragment records have offered a selection of increasingly interesting productions from these Eastern lands. Yet few of these new promising artists seem to be as gifted as Mujuice. This young Russian aged of only twenty-five years has already proven an incredible amount of creativity and talent in his earlier productions. Earthfight podcasts has featured some of these earlier tracks during the last few years, and we are quite proud to have been one of the first podcast site to notice this young artist in the West. But as promising and creative these productions were, nothing can approach the cheer genius of Roma's latest production Cool Cool Death LP. We managed to get a copy of this album first week of July 2007, just after it was launched in Russia, and were among the first one to talk about it around. Overall the feedback we receive from listeners worldwide was quite amazing, down to New Zealand or to non-electronic listeners.

This album is exceptional in many ways. Firstly, the general "traditional" qualities of any great LP are well present, such as an incredible sense of melody and rhythm. Secondly the originality of the production is quite refreshing, each track proving to be a new unexplored musical territory. This is where the creativity of the young Roma Litvinov is truly amazing. He has found a way to fiddle with many different influences, all easily recognizable, such as Rock, Jazz, Classical Music, Electronica with a hint of Easy listening and Ambient. The true genius is the lush and exciting electronic hybridization resulting from this strange but tasteful mix. Interestingly, although some tracks are sung in Russian, it never turns the dance floor into a Eurosceptic crowd (remember that it took years before people could enjoy German language on the dance floor). The overall homogeneity of the album is excellent, the track listing having been worked out perfectly. Overall I would say that this album would easily compete with first Björk solo album or some Radiohead album.

After expecting a quick release last November through Kompakt in Germany and hoping for a fast distribution throughout usual retail networks, we came to the conclusion that the release of this milestone album will be postponed to 2008. Let's hope that it will still be appreciated to its true value by then by our Westerner's ears. We cannot emphasis more on the qualities of this beautiful album and indeed advice you to get a copy as soon as possible!